The Virus
by SarahGirl1
Summary: Gumball becomes sick with West Nile and has to deal with its symptoms. Rated K for large amounts of mucus. This is my first fanfiction so no flames please.


The Virus

It was a beautiful summer evening at Elmore. The huge sun was setting in the orange sky. After the sunset would come the beginning of a long night. But because it was summer, the night would last much shorter than usual.

Gumball Watterson, the 12-year-old anthropomorphic cat, was inside of his front yard, watching the beautiful sunset. It was almost impossible to resist the view of a sunset. Gumball loved the summer, because he didn't have to go to school and he was allowed to play outside all day. Now, this day was coming to a close. Gumball wanted to watch the sunset to end his day. The light blue cat sat perfectly still on the lawn and watched the sun set slowly into the horizon. He had such a wonderful day and hoped that tomorrow would be just as fantastic.

He failed to hear a faint buzzing sound that was coming from a part of the yard. The buzzing was coming from a very small bug, buzzing into the yard before nesting on the picket fence that surrounded Gumball's house. This bug was a female, shiny black mosquito. She was also a carrier of the West Nile virus, and she wanted to give it to beings she despised.

She looked around the yard from the fence. She was looking for somebody, anybody to bequeath her malady to. Seeing no one at first, she was about to give up all hope when she suddenly took notice of Gumball. If she flew over to Gumball and stuck her sharp snout into any part of his body, she'd have it: one instant West Nile-infected cat. The mosquito chuckled evilly to herself.

She flew off the picket fence and flew over to Gumball. She stopped in midair and stared at Gumball's body. There were so many places to bite him, she didn't know where to start. But after a few seconds of thinking it over, she flew over to his left arm and landed onto it. She bit into Gumball's arm with her long, pointed nose. Gumball was in silent pain as the mosquito flew off Gumball's arm and away from the yard.

Gumball lifted up his left arm and looked at the mysterious bite on it. Something had bitten him, but before he got a good look it wasn't there anymore. He decided that it was a mosquito, and he was right. What he didn't know what that the mosquito had West Nile.

Gumball decided to simply ignore the bite and go inside for the night. For most of the night, he completely ignored the bite. But as bedtime came, Gumball took one last look at the bite on his arm before he went to bed. It looked much more inflamed than when he first got it. Gumball believed that this inflammation would be a sign that he was getting sick, but since he knew the chances of getting sick from one mosquito bite was extremely low, he thought he wouldn't get sick. Gumball went off to sleep for the night, but the mosquito bite got much worse overnight. The whole night Gumball was asleep, the virus from the mosquito that caused the bite traveled through his bloodstream. (Did I mention Gumball hadn't built up any immunity to the virus?) Despite thinking that he wouldn't get sick, he was about to be completely wrong. This wouldn't end well.

The Next Morning

The next morning, at around eight AM, Darwin and Anais (Gumball's best friend and younger sister, respectively) were in the living room watching TV. Darwin was an orange fish, and Anais was a pink rabbit. Anyway, they were sitting there on the couch (though Darwin was standing on the floor), enjoying the animated program on television. If you were wondering, they were watching what would be a cross between "Transformers," "Power Rangers" and "Cubix: Robots for Everyone." To be specific, that program involved crime-fighting robots.

Gumball walked down the stairs wearing only his nightshirt. He stopped when he reached the couch that the rabbit was sitting upon, and where the fish was standing. Gumball looked absolutely terrible. His eyes were bloodshot, his nose was red, sensitive and congested; and his face had become from aqua to a noticeably pale shade of blue. Remember earlier in the story where the West Nile-infected mosquito bit him in the arm? Well, the West Nile virus-the virus the mosquito was once infected with-had infected Gumball.

Despite having West Nile, it felt like Gumball had the flu. It wasn't long before Darwin and Anais saw the poor unwell feline. After a few seconds of silence, Darwin was the first to speak to Gumball.

"Are you okay?" Darwin asked Gumball.

After a pause, Gumball said, "I thig I'b sig," in the most unpleasant, raspy and stuffed-up voice you would ever hear. He couldn't get any more words out other than those four. He wanted to say "I think I'm sick," but his nose was so red and congested it was darn near impossible to pronounce it right.

"That doesn't sound good," Darwin said.

Gumball responded with a single congested sniffle-and suddenly cringed. His bloodshot eyes widened and his nose immediately started twitching. He started to inhale a few times; a big sneeze was building deep inside of him. His nose was very sensitive and that one sniffle was what sent it going.

"Aaaaah aaaaAAAh " Gumball began to inhale, each hitched breath making his nose hotter.

At first Darwin and Anais had no idea what was going on. The second inhale was when Darwin and Anais realized it. They realized that Gumball was going to sneeze, and they knew that his sneezes, whether he tried to hold them back or not, were really, really loud. In rare cases they would be powerful, too (especially if he tried to hold them back), but they usually weren't powerful enough to cause damage except for that one time when he sneezed at school and blew a table into the wall, ruining it. (Now, I haven't seen Gumball sneeze in real life before, indicating he never sneezed at all as of 2012, but I imagined his sneezes would be really big and loud. The incident where he sneezed and ruined a table never really happened; it was all something I made up.)

Anyway, Gumball was going to sneeze, and while Darwin stayed perfectly calm, Anais was very concerned.

"No no no! Gumball's gonna sneeze!" Anais said.

"His sneezes aren't that bad," Darwin said, not caring a bit about how Gumball was going to sneeze.

"But his sneezes are really really loud!" Anais said.

"They may be loud, but just because they're loud doesn't mean they're powerful," Darwin said.

"But what about the time he sneezed at school, blew a table into the wall and destroyed it!" Anais said.

"Well, at least it was the only table that got destroyed. It was just a table," Darwin said, seemingly missing the point.

"We don't have time to worry about a table. We have to run for our lives!" Anais said. She was right: They had to run for their lives (or at least get out of the way)!

Anais jumped off the couch and took cover (and grabbed onto her ears in the process), but while she really wanted to avoid being sneezed on by Gumball, Darwin didn't. He wanted to prove to Anais that Gumball's sneezes weren't always bad.

"You're overreacting. How bad could they be? This one won't be as strong as you think it'll be," he said.

He didn't know he was completely wrong, and just before he could move a muscle it was too late. Gumball was ready to sneeze, and it was a big one.

"AaaaaaAAAAAh AaaaaaaAAAAAAAH-chooooooooo!"

Gumball sneezed loudly and with intense force on Darwin, blowing him off the couch and onto the floor, accompanied by a disgusting blast of a green substance (mucus). The orange fish landed on the floor in a daze. He was about to rub his head in pain, but when he touched his head he felt something wet and slimy. He was touching the green mucus that had once been in Gumball's nose, but was now all over his face. Gumball had sneezed on him. Darwin was very horrified. He absolutely HATED being sneezed on. It was just so disgusting. It also didn't feel good at all.

"Aaaagh! What the ? Gumball, you sneezed on me! That's not funny at all! How could you do this to your own friend?" Darwin said these words before he ran upstairs into the bathroom in a panic. He needed to get the green stuff off his face, or else he'd get sick as well (or so he thought). Gumball stood there, embarrassed about what he just did. Anais got up from where she took cover before the sneeze and looked at her sick brother; she didn't look too impressed, and she also looked suitably disgusted.

"Did you have to?" she asked her very sick brother.

"I'b so sorry, I couldn't stob id," Gumball said, rubbing his very sensitive nose with one of his fingers. (What he was supposed to say but couldn't because his nose was so congested: I'm so sorry, I couldn't stop it.)

Unfortunately, his rubbing caused his nose to twitch again. And that sent him into the windup for another sneeze. Yes, his nose was really that sensitive-and that one rub sent it going and burning again.

"Aaaah aaaah " he began to inhale.

Anais knew he was going to sneeze again-but this time she put one of her fingers directly under Gumball's burning red nose to keep him from sneezing. (You know how sometimes in cartoons and on TV when characters put a finger under their nose if they have to sneeze?)

The finger worked like a charm. Gumball's urge to sneeze faded to none as Anais removed her finger and sighed in relief. Unfortunately, the urge to sneeze was only gone for a few seconds, and after those few seconds had passed, Gumball let out another sneeze, the one thing Anais wasn't expecting at the time.

"AaaaaAAAAH-CHOOOOOOOOOO!"

Gumball sneezed again, but this one was louder and even more powerful than his first one. It was so strong that he blew himself to the floor, head first, and became unconscious. (It's true: in cartoons, if a sneeze is stopped it'll only be gone for a few seconds before it bites back. A sneeze can't be stopped by any means known to man.) Anais stared for a while.

"I'll call the doctor," she said.

Later

The Watterson family went straight to the doctor to find out why Gumball was so ill, and what Gumball was ill with. They were all there: Anais, Darwin (no longer having the mucus on his face), Nicole (Gumball's mother, who was a light blue cat like Gumball) and Richard (Gumball's father, who was a pink rabbit like Anais). They had also brought Gumball, but he was in the doctor's office being examined. The family of five really wanted to what Gumball had come down with.

Anais, Darwin, Nicole and Richard waited patiently as the doctor came out holding his clipboard. Gumball came out, too, now wearing his normal clothes, but still looking sick. The minute they came out, Nicole wanted to know what happened to her son. "Doctor, what happened? Is Gumball going to be okay?" Nicole said.

"Mrs. Watterson, your son has West Nile fever. He has caught it so badly that his left arm has been completely paralyzed," the doctor explained.

"Oh, dear gosh! Gumball, sweetheart, how do you feel?" Nicole asked, looking over at her sick child.

"Uh, had better days, Bob," Gumball said, "had better days. (What he was supposed to say but couldn't because his nose was so congested: Uh, had better days, Mom, had better days.)"

LATER THAT DAY

"Mom, do you know when Gumball's gonna get better?" Darwin said to Nicole.

"Darwin, I've already explained this to you. Gumball has West Nile and it may take him a long time to recover," Nicole said.

"Bob! Brig be a Capri Sud, please!" Gumball said from the living room. (What he was supposed to say but couldn't because his nose was so congested: Mom! Bring me a Capri Sun, please!)

Nicole sighed, went over to the fridge in the kitchen, got out a Capri Sun and went to the living room to give it to Gumball.

Gumball sat on the couch in the living room, with a thermometer in his mouth and a red blanket over him. Nicole entered the room with the beverage in her paw. Then Gumball noticed she was handing it to his paralyzed arm. "Uh, Bob, cad I tell you what do you thig you're doig?" Gumball said. (What he was supposed to say but couldn't because his nose was so congested: Uh, Mom, can I tell you what do you think you're doing?)

"I'm handing you a Capri Sun," said Nicole.

"You're hadig it to by sig arb. Brig it to by right arb, that's by good arb," Gumball said. (What he was supposed to say but couldn't because his nose was so congested: You're handing it to my sick arm. Bring it to my right arm, that's my good arm.)

Nicole handed the Capri Sun to Gumball's right arm. "That's better," Gumball said, and he drank his beverage while his mother went back into the same room that Darwin, Richard and Anais were in.

A day passed, Gumball didn't feel much better. He also sneezed much more than he usually did, and a lot of them were accompanied by disgusting blasts of green mucus. But the good news was that his nose was getting much less sensitive now, so he didn't sneeze much after he rubbed his nose anymore. But that doesn't mean he stopped sneezing. The West Nile virus seemed to be taking over his body, and it still made him act like he had the flu. Gumball wasn't constantly sneezing anymore but he still sneezed. For some reason, his sneezes were getting way messier, if not larger and/or stronger, than they were the previous day, despite the fact that his nose was getting much less sensitive.

His first sneeze, for example, happened right in front of Darwin and Anais. He was in the living room on the couch (with the red blanket over him) when the fish and rabbit went downstairs to check on Gumball. It seemed to be a bad time to check on him because right when they arrived, he had to sneeze again, for no apparent reason. There was nothing that Darwin and Anais could do except look on in sheer horror.

"Ahhh aaahh AAAHHH-CHOOOOOO!"

Gumball sneezed and unfortunately, when this happened, the sick, sneezy cat was right in front of Darwin. The sneeze covered Darwin's face with a thin layer of green mucus. Unlike the last time when Gumball sneezed on him, Darwin didn't panic for some reason. "Bless you. Maybe you should cover your mouth next time," Darwin said.

"Ugh, sorry," Gumball said. He sniffled and a few seconds later, his nose began twitching and he began to sneeze again. This time he aimed his burning nose at his hands (Did I mention he could use his left arm again?) before he sneezed again, which was the same way he sneezed just a few seconds earlier.

"Ahhhh aaaah AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH-CHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Gumball sneezed again and covered his mouth. His sneeze was very huge (and louder than the one before, with a larger and more dramatic buildup), and he didn't realize that covering his mouth was anything but a good idea. His sneeze was flat out DISGUSTING. Sure, he may have covered his mouth, but the sneeze had covered the entire living room with gallons upon gallons of mucus. He even covered Anais and Darwin in the huge amounts of mucus. Gumball was extremely embarrassed. His sneezes were very big, but doing a sneeze this big and messy enough to cover an entire room in mucus was just one of the most impossible things ever. A sneeze this big was extremely rare but it still happened at some points. You wouldn't want to be anywhere near this kind of sneeze. (And remember that this is a fanfic for a CARTOON you're reading.)

"Gesundheit," said Anais.

"Sorry about that," Gumball said, rubbing his nose with a finger (without sneezing afterwards this time) and sniffling.

"Maybe covering your mouth wasn't such a good idea as you thought, huh?" Darwin said.

"No," Gumball said.

That night, Gumball, as well as Darwin and Anais, had to stay quiet so their parents could sleep. It was very late at night, around 10 PM or so, and there were no programs on TV. The children dared not to turn on the TV or play video games. They had to stay quiet because their parents usually had trouble sleeping at night, because the kids were so loud. Anyway, the kids stayed in the living room. All they wanted to do was go to bed but their parents did not allow them to do that.

Gumball tried not to make one sound. At first he didn't make a sound. But at one point, his nose started to twitch. This one twitch caused a sneeze to build. Gumball really didn't want to sneeze because he feared he would wake up his parents.

Gumball tried to inhale through his burning red nose, but it did nothing but increase the need to sneeze.

"Aahh " Gumball began to inhale. This hitched breath wasn't enough to wake his parents but it was enough to attract Darwin and Anais's attention.

"Gumball? Are you all right?" Darwin said.

"Aaaaah aahhhh " Gumball inhaled. He didn't seem to hear a word Darwin said.

"Uh, I think he's going to sneeze," Anais said.

"No! We can't allow him to do that!" Darwin said.

Gumball continued to inhale until Darwin and Anais grabbed him and silently ran outside. They were NOT going to let Gumball sneeze in the house.

The three ran out of the house, and on a large hill on the outskirts of Elmore. Gumball directed his nose towards Elmore; whilst this happened, Darwin and Anais readied themselves for the big one.

"Ahhhhh aaaaahhhhh -"

Gumball was about to sneeze but then he stopped. He realized something was wrong: His hitched breaths were so dramatic and so huge-and yet, his sneeze couldn't come out. The problem was that it was stuck and he couldn't sneeze if that sneeze was stuck.

Gumball's nose was extremely red and on fire, and it really wanted to sneeze but he couldn't. He needed to make himself sneeze soon, or else he would completely lose control of his sneezes.

"Ahhhh D Dar win? Ahhh A a little help? Ahhh " Gumball said, each word punctuated by hitched breaths. Darwin knew that Gumball needed his help-and he thought up the perfect plan.

Darwin grabbed Gumball's tail and then took out a pepper shaker (which he had with him). The fish then shook the pepper onto the cat's tail, brought it to Gumball's scorching nose and gently started to tickle it. "Here, Gumball. Breathe in," Darwin said.

Gumball's nose was really moving now. Not just twitching, but shaking uncontrollably. Gumball did what Darwin told him and took a big sniff of the tail tickling his nose. The cat hair and pepper in his tail got up both sides of his nose. It felt like his nose was going to explode. Gumball's sneeze finally got unstuck as the cat started to sneeze again-and this time he actually felt the need to sneeze at its strongest point. And unlike his last sneeze, this sneeze was going way past the point of no return. Darwin took the tail away, and then he jumped to the ground and plugged his ears with his hands. Anais did the same. Gumball aimed his red and burning nose towards one of the mountains that surrounded the three. He inhaled about three more times, and then

"Ahhhhhhhhhh aaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAH AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH -!"

Gumball let out his biggest sneeze ever. It was so loud that anybody within a thousand miles would hear it. It was Gumball's biggest, most powerful sneeze ever, and there was mucus everywhere. On the mountains, the hill, and of course Darwin and Anais were all covered in the mucus. Gumball failed to realize because he had more sneezes building.

"Ahhhhh aaahhh aaaaAAAh-CHOOOOOOOOOO!"

Gumball's next sneeze wasn't as loud or powerful as the first, but it did spread a large amount of mucus. His sneezes were getting weaker now.

"Ahhhh aaahh aaaahhh-choooooo! Ahhhhh ahhh-chooooo! Ahhh ahhhh ahh-chooo! Ah ahhh ah-choo!"

The cat's first three sneezes got weaker and weaker, and his fourth sneeze was completely normal and non-lethal. Gumball's sneezes weren't loud or messy anymore. As well as getting weaker, Gumball's sneezes were now getting less messy. And you know what? While Gumball was sneezing, all of the mucus he had sneezed out of his body contained the West Nile viruses. Now that the mucus had completely exited his body (and the viruses as well), Gumball wasn't sick anymore. His nose and eyes returned to their normal color. Darwin and Anais got up and realized he wasn't sneezing anymore. And somehow, neither of them noticed he had sneezed on them.

"Wow, gesundheit. That was a lot of sneezes you did there," Darwin said.

"Yup," Gumball said in his normal voice, rubbing a finger under his no-longer burning nose.

"Oh! Gumball! You're better!" Anais realized.

Now that Gumball was rid of West Nile, the entire family was happy again. Gumball was perfectly healthy now, but he knew that sometime in the future, he would be sick again, but he didn't have to worry about it ever again for now.

THE END

Thanks for reading. I hope you liked it. 


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